Paula Christianson-Silva is a nurse practitioner at UT Health San Antonio’s Wellness 360 clinic.
" I've had 30 years plus of primary care practice, and I see over and over and over again that patients with diabetes, hypertension, obesity, you add more meds, more meds, more meds, more meds," Christianson-Silva said.
But too often, more meds didn’t stop her patients' decline.
So she and two colleagues started the Green Wellness Program: Plants-2-Plate, a six-month program that helps people adopt a whole food, plant-based diet.
"Whole food plant-based means that we encourage people to move away from animal products," she said. "So we recommend getting away from anything, any meat, any poultry and fish. And replacing those things with plant-based protein options.
Those who enroll become part of a group, and they meet weekly with that group.
"And it's really amazing how much support the group gives to each other," she said, adding that the program gets results across-the-board.
"We see improvement in cholesterol. We see improvements in their inflammatory markers. We have definitely seen for those with diabetes a decrease in their hemoglobin A1C," she said. "And my favorite thing to do, of course, is to decrease someone's diabetic medications for them."
Participants also lose weight — about five percent, on average — but Christianson-Silva said the goals of the program are about improved health and long-term lifestyle change.
More information about the program can be found here.
Science & Medicine is a collaboration between TPR and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio that explores how scientific discovery in San Antonio advances the way medicine is practiced everywhere.
